The Central Bank of Nigeria has promised to clamp down on real estate owners, school proprietors and other industry practitioners who charge their customers in dollars.
The Apex Bank said at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting that it is illegal for landlords or school proprietors to demand rents or fees in dollars.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele reminded businesses that “The official currency for doing business in Nigeria remains the Naira.
“Collecting rents or school fees in dollars in Nigeria is illegal. We like to implore those involved in these practices to desist from them, because CBN would very soon begin to go after them.”
Emefiele denied prioritizing the sale of foreign exchange to foreign investors, explaining that all such transactions on a daily basis were only to people with effective demand in line with its policy.
He explained that the closure of the official foreign exchange market was to remove rent-seeking activities or opportunities for people who felt they wanted to take advantage of the vulnerabilities in the FOREX market.
He noted that all foreign exchange transactions, are now done in the open, stating that without these measures, there was no way JP Morgan would not delist Nigeria from the watch list of nations with liquidity problems in their economy in due course.
In the communique issued at the end of the meeting, the governor said members agreed to keep the indices unchanged, as the previous decisions needed time for their effects to fully impact the economy.